Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Who used whos ideas in the discovery of DNA?

There is lots of controversy on this topic. Erwin Chargaff determined the ratios between A and T and G and C. Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins & Rosalind Elsie Franklin used a technique called X-ray diffraction crystallography and found a confusing and symmetrical diffraction pattern. Francis Harry Compton Crick & James Dewey Watson who were independently working on DNA found Franklin's data, and applying Chargaff's rule, they "discovered" the DNA. Up until recently we always called Watson and Crick the fathers of DNA, but they never would have done it without Franklin's work.

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